Archie Dickens ( christened Archie Bernard Dickins - 1907 – 28 November 2004), son of a

bootmaker clicker A boot and shoe clicker is the person who cuts the uppers for boots or shoes from a skin of leather or piece of man-made material (usually from a bulk roll). This includes all components of the upper, including linings, facings, stiffeners, reinfo ...

, was a British

greeting card A greeting card is a piece of card stock, usually with an illustration or photo, made of high quality paper featuring an expression of friendship or other sentiment. Although greeting cards are usually given on special occasions such as birthday ...

artist and later a

pin-up A pin-up model (known as a pin-up girl for a female and less commonly male pin-up for a male) is a model whose mass-produced pictures see widespread appeal as part of popular culture. Pin-up models were variously glamour models, fashion models ...

artist who was born in Balham (

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

) in June 1907.Archie Dickens
thepinupfiles.com At a young age it became apparent that Archie and his older sister, Doris Louise, had some talent in drawing and it was intended that both he and his sister attend the

Slade School of Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

. However, due to a change in his father's circumstances, only his sister continued in further education whilst Archie, at the age of 14, was sent to work. After returning from

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where Dickens had spent much of

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, he purchased a house in Acacia Gardens in

West Wickham West Wickham is an area of South East London, England, mainly within the London Borough of Bromley with some parts lying in the London Borough of Croydon. It lies south of Park Langley and Eden Park, west of Hayes and Coney Hall, north of ...

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, and worked in a purpose-built studio in the grounds. Dickens spent much of the early post-war years drawing pin-ups but in the 1960s and 1970s turned his artistic talents to greeting cards which could be seen in the greeting card shops across the UK at the time — having adopted the signature 'Gluckli' as the increasingly well-known identifying mark to Dickens' obvious Archie style. In March 2002

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...

, the then

British Prime Minister The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern p ...

, wore a Paul Smith designer shirt that displayed one of Dickens' paintings on the cuff.

References

External links

Feminine beauty educational site

Archie Dickens EyeGate Gallery
1907 births 2004 deaths Pin-up artists {{UK-artist-stub